August 17, 2016

House of Baha’u’llah in Tehran in the news in Iran

On May 1 this year, the House of Baha’u’llah in an alley off Pamenar Street (خیابان پامنار) in Tehran was closed in accordance with a court order, and it was stressed that any attempt to reopen the house would face prosecution. The House is government-owned, and was renovated in 2013. It is not clear from the reports what was achieved by a physical closure. According to government-controlled media in Iran, Bahais in Iran and elsewhere had been trying to buy the neighbouring properties “to develop the historic building as a site for religious meetings and devotions” (or more likely, to make it difficult for a property developer to raze the area). According to these media, neglect of the historic building and ignorance and maladministration by the responsible officials in the Ministry of Cultural Heritage led them to ask the Bahais to seek — unsuccessfully — to have the house registered as a cultural monument. The age of the building and its beauty leaves no room for doubt, according to these media, that the refusal to register the building was due to anti-Bahai prejudice, yet the house is not linked only to the Bahai community, it is part of Iran’s history and belongs to all Iranians. Although the house is a sacred spot for Bahais, to avoid problems they refrain from activities nearby, and even from walking around the area.

My guess – as an outsider trying to read between the lines – is that the issue is that the registration of the building as a cultural monument, especially if it were listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, would prevent the construction of modern buildings in the immediate area. The judicial closure would prevent maintenance and further steps to document and register the site as a cultural heritage. The Ministry of Cultural Sites and Handcrafts, with a responsibility for both protecting heritage and developing tourism, is being blamed for failing to achieve the registration (because of anti-Bahai prejudice), and for working with Bahais to try to achieve registration! It is not clear why this issue should have resurfaced now, when the closure took place in May and was reported in a limited way at the time.